I’m thrilled to see the true fact about the opioid issue prominent in the headline of a mainstream media publication – especially one directed at financial professionals.

“Patients in pain have become collateral damage in the war on opioids.”

Seeing this fact, which is so often voiced by pain patients, simply stated in this article gives me hope that the public will start to realize that opioids are sometimes very needed and not some sort of “evil” substance that “causes addiction”.

New laws make it easy for anyone accused of having an addiction problem to be committed if they don’t agree to whatever treatment is recommended for them.

Involuntary commitment for people accused of having an addiction and not actively participating in treatment for it is becoming more common as more laws are being passed to make this legal.

Barely a day passes on my beat without my meeting someone with a harrowing story about the impact of zero-tolerance drug policies on their lives. But few of these stories have impacted me personally as much as that of a young man I’ll call “Jay.”

I edited the title because it’s been pointed out that “dependence” isn’t the right word. I knew this but was paraphrasing the article title, which uses that word instead of addiction, even though they are clearly talking about opioid misuse. We can thank the DSM-5 for this confusion.

If I ever try to make a list of top ten posts from this blog, my brain will surely blow out of my head like an airbag: too many outstanding choices. This is another much-needed piece of excellent evidence to (try to) counteract the fact-free hysteria currently controlling our care –or denial of care.

This study proves that simply using opioids to treat a medical condition does not lead to increases in suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Prior research has shown associations between opioid misuse and suicidal behaviors, but the relationship between medical opioid use and suicidal behaviors is not known.

We assessed associations between opioid use and misuse to suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and suicide attempts among adults 18-64 years old (n=86,186) using nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Spoiler: there is no linear or incremental increase in overdose risk by dosage. The 90MME limit proposed by the CDC Guideline isn’t based on science, but more like a consensus “best guess” by addiction doctors.